Politics: AMLO and Anaya Battle for the Lead

MEXICO - Report 05 Feb 2018 by Guillermo Valdes and Esteban Manteca

Fifty days of supposed campaigning for presidential nominations that were decided long ago provide us with a preview of the strategies the three major candidates are developing for the general election that gets underway March 30. Lacking in charisma, future PRI nominee José Antonio Meade has the most to prove as he is the least known candidate, even among PRI voters. He must soon begin to project issues about which people can get excited if he has any hope of moving out of a distant third place. That will also entail the delicate task of energizing a diminished base of dedicated PRI voters while also appealing to a broader electorate by fending off the negative associations with a party that has been badly tarnished by corruption scandals. So far there is no sign he is gaining any traction, as the PRI-led coalition’s campaign has been a sieve of damaging leaks and even speculation over whether someone might eventually replace him. In fact, support for Meade appears to be fading.

The PAN’s Ricardo Anaya has maintained a surprisingly low campaign profile even as he directs much of his polemical fire at Meade while positioning himself to challenge frontrunner Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the mantle of the most credible anti-corruption candidate. So far, he is drawing much closer to AMLO.

Both of these candidates’ efforts are complicated by the need to manage serious infighting over the nominees for thousands of down-ballot spots in such a way as to keep their campaign alliances fully intact. On some levels that job may be easier for López Obrador, but he has stoked controversy both with ideas about pardoning corrupt politicians and amnestying repentant participants in organized crime, and a highly pragmatic approach in which he has allied with and extended candidacies to politicians with highly checkered pasts, regardless of whether they share any of Morena’s positions.

With almost two months to go before the general election campaign gets underway, there could be a lot of movement in the current standings.

Now read on...

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